Jack White Rages, Lady Gaga Remixes, Fleming Goes Rock: Review

Soprano Renee Fleming. Fleming's first rock album, "Dark Hope," features her versions of pop tracks originally recorded by Leonard Cohen, Muse, Death Cab for Cutie and others. Source: Mercury Music Group via Bloomberg

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Rock stars know there are two ways to
make records. You can spend months in the studio, digitally
capturing every note, finessing and mixing to perfection. Or you
can bash it out in a few days using the Jack White method.

The White Stripes star, a fan of old-fashioned vinyl, has
been making music increasingly rough and fast: Just start
jamming and see what comes out from the band, be it Raconteurs
or his latest side project, the Dead Weather, whose second album
is “Sea of Cowards.”

The “quick and dirty” live approach works best with great
songwriting -- Nick Cave has pulled it off, both with the Bad
Seeds and Grinderman. Dead Weather sounds like White’s third-best band -- full of energy, yet raw around the edges.

This time, White is more to the fore. He’s still playing
drums -- a surprising choice for a talented guitarist -- and he
even takes a lead vocal on the opening “Blue Blood Blues.”

“All the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service,”
White yells, though for the rest of the album he leaves Alison
Mosshart to do the screaming. Rating: **1/2.

Renee Fleming’s CD “Dark Hope” is rock as you haven’t
heard it before. The diva switches from works such as “La
Traviata” and “Der Rosenkavalier” to songs by Leonard Cohen
and others, including Arcade Fire and Jefferson Airplane, on a
fascinating though flawed exploration of pop.

If it were all as good as the closing “Hallelujah” --
where Fleming lets her voice soar like few rock stars can -- or
the Tears for Fears lament “Mad World,” this would be an
extraordinary record.

All too often she chooses to undersing, clipping her notes
to fit the melody. Numbers such as “Endlessly” are as bland as
Bonnie Tyler on a bad day. If only Fleming unleashed her
operatic power, slowed the music and used that amazing ability
to hold a note.

It’s an uneven yet intriguing effort. Rating: ***.

From someone who can sing to someone who can’t, but knows
how to make a pop hit anyway.

The Madonna for our times, Lady Gaga, has wheeled out
another version of her debut album. After “The Fame” and “The
Fame Monster” we get “The Remix.” The familiar tracks, now in
danger of being played to death, are given a new sheen by the
Pet Shop Boys and sometime Madonna producer Stuart Price.
Rating: **.

Paul Weller, at 52, continues his purple patch with “Wake
Up the Nation.” Weller reunites with his former Jam bandmate
Bruce Foxton for the first time in more than 20 years on “Fast
Car/Slow Traffic,” which like many of the tracks crams a lot of
energy into two minutes. Rating: ****.

LCD Soundsystem is the brainchild of U.S. producer James
Murphy, who has been turning out electronic dance with mixed
results over three albums. The latest, “This Is Happening,” is
the best yet, though it’s possibly the last of his ersatz
group’s offerings: Murphy has hinted at moving on. “You Wanted
a Hit” is a cool response to commercial pressures. Rating:
***1/2.

The Australian dance-rockers in Pendulum have been touring
the world, turning out increasingly crazed live versions of
their second album “In Silico.” Just when it seemed the nu-metal madness had reached its height, the band has discovered
some welcome subtlety on the new “Immersion.” Rating: **.

Download fees vary across services. The CDs are priced from
$12.98, or 8.99 pounds in the U.K. Dead Weather is on Third Man,
Fleming on Mercury Records, Lady Gaga on Interscope, Weller on
Island/ Yep Rock, LCD Soundsystem on DFA and Pendulum on Warner.

(Mark Beech writes for Muse, the arts and leisure section
of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)